Ishtar (1987)

Directed by Elaine May. Starring Dustin Hoffman, Warren Beatty, Charles Grodin, Isabelle Adjani, Jack Weston, Aharon Ipalé, Fuad Hageb, Carol Kane, Tess Harper. [PG-13]

Beatty and Hoffman ape Hope and Crosby from the Road to… pictures, playing a pair of awful New York songwriters/entertainers that head off to perform in Morocco and get tangled up in a complicated but thinly-drawn conflict between American operatives and Arab rebels. The most notorious bomb of its time (in the same year as such stinkers as Leonard Part 6 and Superman IV, so that’s saying something); starts out as a perfectly dreadful comedy and then transitions into a perfectly tiresome espionage adventure that may or may not still be trying to be funny (hard to say). As if their critical involvement in a CIA/Middle East crossfire wasn’t stretching credibility enough, the filmmakers also expect the audience to believe that the sensuous Isabelle Adjani could be constantly mistaken for a Moroccan boy. Hoffman and Beatty, typically very good actors, are completely mismatched here, achieving a tedious rapport that begs for a mediator to separate them; they have one mildly amusing bit on stage in NYC that is then repeated to deadening results a half-dozen more times. The most likable character—and one that comes closest to actually getting a laugh—is a blind camel…it’s that kind of movie, folks. Later reappraised in some circles as being an unfairly-maligned gem; their blackmailers must be truly intimidating.

20/100